The Importance of Role Play

For children, role play can take many different forms and serve many different purposes. During role play, children imitate the people around them by recreating scenes from everyday life and acting out familiar roles which enables them to realise in their imagination the things that sometimes cannot be realised in reality.

From this, imaginative play develops, and children develop the ability to incorporate narrative into their play. As this play develops you will start to notice that their play becomes more complex and the narratives which are created include more characters and episodes.

Talking and listening skills developed through dramatic play form the narratives which are the basis of reading and writing. Opportunities to develop reading and writing should occur within meaningful contexts in a role-play area.

In role-play situations, children can experiment with the language they have acquired as well as new vocabulary they are introduced to by staff supporting their play.

Imaginative play is more than children having fun. It has a crucial part to play in their intellectual and social development. The ability to make one thing stand for another, to picture things that are not there, are critical features in the growth of both thought and language.

Empathy is also developed through imaginative play. This is what is happening when children play ‘Mums and Dads’ or ‘Schools’, and it is play of this kind that helps children overcome feelings of fear and loneliness.

Tips for Encouraging Role Play

• Don’t always rush in to join your child while they are playing. Sit back and observe the learning, and creative development before intervening: This will ensure that your intervention is not disrupting the story they are telling or enacting. Once you know the scenario that they are acting out, you extend the learning in a focused way.
• Ask focused, open-ended, not closed, questions: Remember that role play does not have a right or wrong answer. Remember to give your child time to think and answer your questions.
• Take on a role/join in role play and dressing up if you are invited to: This gives value to their play and reinforces the nature of role play as transformative and accessible, you have become someone else too. On the other hand, you might not have a role in the play at all and if you are not invited, please do not interrupt when they’re busy.
• Change props: This is to help maintain interest.
• Support role play outdoors: bearing in mind that some children are more likely to engage in it in this environment. Remember that role play does not need to be confined to a specific area.
• Do not reinforce stereotypes: ensure that the role play is not stereotypical in terms of gender or culture e.g. girls wash up and boys use the tools.

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